My dad's book

Over the last four years, many people here at the Nostalgia Forum have expressed interest in the book my dad was writing - thank you for your interest! It has actually been available online for over a week now but I've been reluctant to post about it here because I don't want to seem as though I'm advertising.

However, having had a glass (or three!) of red wine, I've decided that you'll bear with me if I let you know about the book and its availability! We decided on a very soft launch for the book and so far have only promoted it on Facebook but despite this it's selling well. The book is published by an American company but if you're in Europe, they have distribution/print centres in England and France. (So the prices are shown in dollars but if you're in Europe it will be dispatched from there). Here's the advert part - it's available in hardback or paperback, 350+ pages, lots of old photographs, newspaper cuttings and ads are shown and the story goes from 1924 right up to present day. You can learn more by following the link in my signature. Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Thank you very much - I have just ordered a copy which ticks very nicely a box on my Christmas-presents-to-buy-list, for a fellow I walk a dog with regularly, whose one international foray as a driver was in a Landcrab on the World Cup Rally. I shall look forward to borrowing it from him!

Richard, my dad - Eric Jackson - was born in 1924, literally on wheels; in a gypsy caravan. His dad was a fairground worker who had run off with a married woman. From this rather unusual beginning, the book tells of his early life, his start in the motor business at age 14 and the wartime years - including his time in Berlin in the army. After the war, he began to take part in local rallies, at the same time building up his business. This led to him coming to the attention of Ford Motor Company. In addition to all the major rallies, he did epic, record-breaking trips such as breaking the London to Sydney record and driving round the world in 43 days. These trips took him all over the world and into some very dangerous situations.

He was (and still is) a down-to-earth Yorkshireman and his co-driver, Ken Chambers, was an urbane Londoner but the two formed a great team and their humour saw them through encounters with bandits in Ethiopia, boy soldiers in the Congo and armed gangs all over Africa. His rallying and driving career starts in the 50s and ends (almost) with what he calls 'The Big One' - a horrendous rally accident in 1973. At this time Autosport and Motoring News tended to refer to him as 'the great granddaddy of rallying', as he did his last rally at the age of fifty. However, the books takes us through to present day - my dad is now 88 and still goes for a two-mile walk every morning before breakfast.

The book recalls many stories which mention names familiar to the motorsport historian and is illustrated throughout with photographs and press cuttings.

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That's as brief as I can be! The book is quite large (300+ pages) so it's hard to convey everything

Richard, my dad - Eric Jackson - was born in 1924, literally on wheels; in a gypsy caravan. His dad was a fairground worker who had run off with a married woman. From this rather unusual beginning, the book tells of his early life, his start in the motor business at age 14 and the wartime years - including his time in Berlin in the army. After the war, he began to take part in local rallies, at the same time building up his business. This led to him coming to the attention of Ford Motor Company. In addition to all the major rallies, he did epic, record-breaking trips such as breaking the London to Sydney record and driving round the world in 43 days. These trips took him all over the world and into some very dangerous situations.

He was (and still is) a down-to-earth Yorkshireman and his co-driver, Ken Chambers, was an urbane Londoner but the two formed a great team and their humour saw them through encounters with bandits in Ethiopia, boy soldiers in the Congo and armed gangs all over Africa. His rallying and driving career starts in the 50s and ends (almost) with what he calls 'The Big One' - a horrendous rally accident in 1973. At this time Autosport and Motoring News tended to refer to him as 'the great granddaddy of rallying', as he did his last rally at the age of fifty. However, the books takes us through to present day - my dad is now 88 and still goes for a two-mile walk every morning before breakfast.

The book recalls many stories which mention names familiar to the motorsport historian and is illustrated throughout with photographs and press cuttings.

_______________________________

That's as brief as I can be! The book is quite large (300+ pages) so it's hard to convey everything

That does sound quite remarkable.Do you by any chance have any film of some of these exploits or events that we might show at one of the film shows, - how would your Dad feel about being interviewed...Fred of course would be perfect for the job !Your Dad is younger than Murray - and he has been 3 times now.

I don't have any film and I don't think my dad does either but Ford Motor Company have been helpful providing photographs for the book so I can check to see if they have anything. The reason is, particularly with the long-distance exploits, that Eric and Ken didn't have service crews or film crews with them; they were completely alone so we're lucky even to have photographs.

There was one incident (on the Cape Town to London Windsor Castle race) when a crew from the UK flew to Africa to film a part of the trip. This included Edgy Fabris from Ford, David Benson from the Daily Express, Jimmy Simpson from Castrol and film people from ITV. They met up briefly with the car in the Congo, took some film and, after the Corsair had left, were arrested by Conglese troops. The entire crew were jailed and the film destroyed. Just one example of what it was like in those days! Eric and Ken were suspected of being spies and the film crew suspected of being in collusion with them. During their time in jail, they were very badly treated, much more so than contemporary accounts suggest. David Benson did write about it but thestory was largely played down by Ford who didn't want that type of publicity.

I think that my dad will be fine about being interviewed. Here he is on a video on the Max Adventure site (at the bottom of the page):

Looks like an absolute must have book, any idea when/if it will be available in Oz??
Didn't they 'pinch' the cylinder head from Eric's Lotus Cortina in the original London-Sydney to keep Roger Clark's similar car going? Is that the what the reference to 'controversial team orders' is about?

Looks like an absolute must have book, any idea when/if it will be available in Oz??Didn't they 'pinch' the cylinder head from Eric's Lotus Cortina in the original London-Sydney to keep Roger Clark's similar car going? Is that the what the reference to 'controversial team orders' is about?

I believe 'they' did, a consequence of Clark's cylinder head failure on the London Sydney was that the 1970 World Cup Escorts were fitted with easy to maintain pushrod 1850 Kent based motors.

Hi Jackie, nice to meet you on FB, and on here again ! Have just ordered from the site that you linked, looking forward to reading it over the Crimbo break and remembering the great adventures that your pop lived through. Thank you !

The company we use is American but I’ve just checked and they do have a print and distribution facility in Australia (as well as the UK, France and the USA) so you should be able to order a book from the link and it will be shipped from Australia so there shouldn't be high shipping costs etc.

Yep, that's it, the Roger Clark thing. My dad talks about it in detail in the book. He says that he and Ken Chambers had been careful to look after their car but it was Henry Taylor who made the decision to cannibalize it for Roger's car. (He also says that there was a newspaper report that he was in the shower when Henry told him. Nonsense, my dad says!) My dad and Roger were always pals though. I have some great photographs which I'll post.

Ages ago, I posted this photograph on my dad's Facebook page. As you can see by the badge my dad is wearing, it was some event or other at Polar Motor Company. (He can't remember which though). When I posted it, it occurred to me that they are, well, rather different in the size department. Shortly afterwards I was talking to my dad on the phone about the photograph and said "Dad, you looked like a ventriloquist's dummy in that photograph". He laughed and said "That's exactly what Roger used to do. He's a very strong bloke, is Roger, and he used to lift me onto his knee and bob my head up and down and say 'gottle of geer, gottle of geer'."

I can't tell you anything about this one except the chances are that this was another Polar 'do'. I don't even know the year but the little boy on the left is my 'baby' brother who was born in 1960 so I'm guessing the mid-sixties. I'll leave it up to you guys to identify the car.

Originally posed by GeoffRI would love to know how they got the basic 1600cc (as it was then) Kent engine out to 1850cc, when the max I could get with 'safe' over boring (with no stroking) was 1650-1700cc.

Quite obviously they stroked them...

It wasn't uncommon for these basic engines to be taken to 1850cc those days, John Harvey's Twin Cam in his Brabham was out to that size early in 1968.

I don't think so.They are said to have experimented with several sizes before deciding on the 1840 for WCR70. Only a proposed 1900 was stroked. It all depends on the block. Before the "711M" I'm sure 1700 was the realistic limit and anything more was hand grenade country. 1760 became almost the norm for the amateur competitor with later blocks and not necessarily with just the "AX"? 1840 became the norm for an iron block BDA (the same block as the Xflow Kent) before the alloy block appeared.

Click on the link that says "Damn Long Way" in Jackie's signature at the bottom of her posts. Or, if you don't have sigs enabled:http://www.damnlongway.com/

Many thanks. signatures became such a problem in another place (banner headlines with glorious technicolour spreads) that not allowing became default. Here there is the advantage of seeing Bob's immortal words in print! (I notice that bands playing the hotel circuit in the Caribbean now tend to substitute their own island's capital for "Trenchtown" in that song - and few listeners ever realise! I did a double take when I first heard "the Government yard in Saint Johns" in Antigua).

I can't tell you anything about this one except the chances are that this was another Polar 'do'. I don't even know the year but the little boy on the left is my 'baby' brother who was born in 1960 so I'm guessing the mid-sixties. I'll leave it up to you guys to identify the car.

The car is a March Formula Ford, somewhere between a 1969 and 1971 version.

Another despatch confirmation - which is good service for this time of year.
Hope it's not coming from the "UK Vat Registration" address though, as that's listed as Raleigh, North Carolina (or Rawlee, Nawth Cahlina if you've spent too much time in NASCAR country). Strange, since France and Italy Vat registration addresses are in those countries.

Well I did frequent those parts back in 1978/9 (with cars registerd north of the Mason Dickson line, which caused no end of problems) ("Y'all a damn Yankee?", as a prelude to preparing to beat me up, immediately followed by declarations of life-long friendship on realisng I was from "old" England, not New England).Book received in post today - brilliant service (obviously not sent from the Confederate States!).From brief look through: Wasn't EJ's Cortina on the 66 Tulip a Lotus (EHE9C?)- it's called a GT in the text. Next, I just might be asking if he recalls the reg nos of the works Mk2 car he was to have driven on the aborted 67 RAC and the one he won the 68 Seven Dales with! (all in the cause of the Loutus Cortina info web site).